The Best Mashed Potatoes Ever!

Alrighty, hey there guys! As you know, November’s Sunday Suppers are all about helping you get ready for Thanksgiving. I know a ton of my friends and their siblings (who are also my friends, hey y’all) are now finishing up college, have gotten married, started families, or have moved away from home and moved into their own apartments and have never created their own Thanksgiving meal or even a piece of it.

So my first part of this Thanksgiving series is all about a very traditional Thanksgiving side dish: Mashed Potatoes. But not just any ole mashed potatoes, these potatoes are butter whipped. The holidays aren’t for diets, people! A whole pound of butter (!!!) is added for every three pounds of potatoes. And the flavor profile is taken up a good few notches with 2 entire heads of delicious roasted garlic. If you’ve never made roasted garlic, don’t worry about a strong garlic flavor; roasted garlic is sweet, mellow, and a bit nutty in flavor. The garlic brings an amazing new depth of flavor to basic mashed potatoes.

The ingredients are simple, the flavor is profound, it’s easy as pie, and yes, this will impress!

Butter Whipped Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes i.e. the Best Mashed Potatoes Ever!

6 lbs gold potatoes, peeled and cut into similar sizes
2 lbs unsalted European butter, cut into pieces
1/4-1/2 cup heavy cream, warmed
2 heads of fresh garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

1a. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. On a baking sheet place two small sheets of aluminum foil, cut the heads of garlic width-wise (horizontally) and put onto the aluminum. Pour the olive oil onto the cut sides of the garlic heads and put the tops back onto the bottoms to make them ‘whole’ again. Wrap the aluminum around the garlic heads individually, so that both garlic heads are now covered in their own aluminum case on baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in the oven for 45 minutes.
1b. While garlic is in the oven, bring a pot of water to boil along with 2 tsp of salt. Once boiling, add potatoes and boil for 45-50 minutes until tender.
2. Pull garlic out to cool. Drain potatoes and use a potato ricer to mash the potatoes. Put into the potato back into the pot over a very low heat and squeeze the garlic out of the skins into the pot. Add a small amount of butter to the potatoes and whip them in with a large fork, whisk, or a hand mixer just until they disappear before adding more butter. After mixing about 1/3 of the butter, add a bit of salt and pepper. Not so much that it is fully seasoned, just a bit. Keep adding the butter and whipping it in until all the butter is incorporated.
3. Splash the warm cream into the potatoes and stir in a bit at a time until you reach the desired texture. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
And that’s it, your potatoes are done! Another side dish complete and you can make this ahead, it does freeze well all you need to do is add a bit of liquid while reheating.
I hope you enjoy this side dish this Thanksgiving!
Much love!
Britt Anne